The Virus
by akih08
Summary: Necro and Effie from street fighter 3 try to elude the Illuminati but unforseen circumstances may hinder their efforts
1. Prologue

The gunship passed overhead, its rotors a thundering sound of inevitable doom for the prey it was seeking. It shone its lights through the forest, illuminating everything in its path and ensuring that nothing went unnoticed. Inside, the pilot and crew scanned with infrared visors and ready trigger fingers; an insurmountable reward awaited them for accomplishing this task.

"Remember," said the team leader, "Our orders are to shoot to kill, especially the Twelve Progenitor, otherwise known as NECRO." "What of the other one who deserted with him?" inquired his lieutenant. "She's expendable but don't worry if we cannot kill her outright, _tovarisch_. According to the files, she's already on borrowed time. Her usefulness to the G-Project ended long ago and Lord Gill was simply letting her live out her days. He was getting tired of repeated escape attempts anyways, although if it weren't for her most recent before this, we wouldn't be in the position of obtaining high favor that we are in now. Trust me, if our bullets don't kill her she will expire of her own accord."

Ever so briefly, the lieutenant balked at the idea of so harshly sentencing an innocent girl --whose only actual crime thus far was trying to lead what many would consider a normal confinement free life--to death. _But then again_, he thought, _she was just a sick orphan when we found her. She was already doomed to die young. _And she'd obviously chosen desertion over any chance to save her that Gill or any of Dr. Kure's scientists might have offered had she remained loyal. She's cast her lot, he decided and now she'll just have to take what fate has to offer. Which admittedly wasn't much given the circumstances--and the now condemned company that she'd aligned herself with. Thinking once more of the proverbial bigger fish and of the honor that he and his crew would receive upon landing said fish, the Illuminati lieutenant hefted his gun and, smiling grimly to himself turned to readdress his superior. "So when does the fun begin?"


	2. Turnabout

As the chopper circled ominously like a gigantic vulture, the girl in question pressed tightly against her companion, more for comfort than for any actual attempt not to be seen; the high LED light being emitted would have made Illia's pallid skin shine like a diamond at high noon. It was all he and Effie could do to simply stay out of its path and as poor luck would have it, the forest had opened into a rather sizeable clearing. There were still enough trees and shrubs to provide adequate cover but not without having to shadow-hop. Nonetheless, Illia did his best to remain optimistic, at least for Effie's sake if not his own.

"We're halfway to the other side," he said, "If we can can keep this up, we'll lose them under cover in no time."

"Yeah, 'if' being the key word,"Effie replied. "Just face it Illia, we're screwed this time. We definitely can't stay in one place out here, but each time we move from shadow to shadow we risk exposing ourselves." _Although I have to admit, _she thought to herself, _those Shinobi skills Ibuki was nice enough to teach us are coming in quite handy_.

"Even if we manage to avoid being spotted from the air, our bio-signals are all over this place. What makes you think they'll just fly away instead of landing and searching us out on foot?"

" I don't," Illia admitted, "but we stand a better chance if we keep moving. Should push come to shove, we can always give 'em a few thousand volts to think about, _da_?"

"Riiiiiiiiiight. My friend, the walking, talking electric eel," Effie allowed herself to quip."Ok, I'm sold. Lead the way, Sparky." Despite that she had used the one nickname he absolutely hated, Illia had to chuckle at that. Unfortunately the lightened mood did not last very long at all. Just as Illia and Effie made into the shadows of the next tree, the wandering light passed over them. It was only for a second that they could be seen but that was enough. Gunfire pierced the night and bullets shredded the bark from Illia and Effie's hiding place. It was only a matter of time before flesh was next.

"I knew this wouldn't work," Effie wailed. But Illia didn't even waste time responding; he already had one last trick up his cuff. In one fluid motion, he snatched Effie up, cocked his arm like a rubber band and snapped it forward. In a flash, he'd stretched it across the remainder of the clearing and into the forest, depositing Effie safely out of sight and for the moment, out of harm's way.

_Now to give those trigger-happy fools one very electrifying performance_, Illia told himself. Grabbing two relatively high and sturdy tree branches, Illia pulled himself backwards, stretching both arms to their most considerable limits. When he could go no further, he took careful aim and snapped himself forward, literally flying toward the gunship at breakneck speed.

Effie picked herself out the shrub Illia had dropped her in. At first she was angry--she'd gotten scratched up and would be picking twigs out of her hair for at least the rest of the night--but that quickly subsided. _I could have bulletholes instead of twigs and scrapes, if not for Illia's quick thinking. For that matter, where is ol' Rubber Band Man?_ She looked around and froze in stark terror as she scanned the sky.

"Illiaaaaaaaaaa," she screamed "Nooooooooooooo!" ...


	3. Don't Move A Muscle

As the soldiers in the gunship fired away, their rifle muzzles blazing in the night sky, no one noticed a strange, streamlined figure gliding effortlessly towards them. Even if they had been paying more attention, they would not have noticed Illia, who had actually stretched his entire body out until it was barely discernible in the dark. Reaching out, he managed to grab hold of one of the rear wheels and haul himself up onto the back of the copter. He avoided the spinning rotors and being blown off with relative ease by staying close to the hull and worked his way to the front end. He considered lowering himself inside and either electrocuting the soldiers or tossing them out but decided against it for two reasons: (1) the soldiers would obviously be wearing shock-proofed gear and armor and (2) fast as he was, he didn't think now was a good time to match that speed agaisnt a hail of bullets.

Instead, Illia decided to take everything out at once and began unleashing EMP waves into the chopper. In short time, he was able to completely cripple the bird, stopping its engines and rotors cold. The soldiers aboard the chopper never knew what hit them. One minute they were scanning the ground for the two fugitive mutants, the next minute they were watching in dumbfounded horror as that very ground came rushing up to meet them.

Effie saw the chopper plummet to earth with Illia still clinging on for dear life. She knew there was no way he'd survive the crash, even with his powers, yet she was powerless to do anything, except pray for a miracle that would somehow deliver him out of danger as he had just done for her.

Miracles seemed to be in no dwindling supply tonight. Illia had mamnaged to ride the chopper down until it was literally 50 feet from the ground. How he managed to time himself, even he could not say but he knew exactly when to jump, hurling himself at least 60 yards away from the falling chopper and landing with no harm done. Brushing himself off, he surveyed the crash for any survivors; the chopper hadn't exploded. Just as he was satisfying himself that the threat was over and had turned to rejoin Effie, something thrust itself into the back of his head, something metal.

"Don't move a muscle, freak!"


	4. The Last Cockroach

"You big jerk!!!" Effie's screeching shook Illia from his musings. "Were you _trying_ to get yourself killed after I nearly got myself blown up saving your sorry tail? Or maybe you just get your kicks out of scaring me half to death, huh?!?!" "Um, in case you weren't paying attention, we _were_ kinda second away from being turned into Swiss cheese back there," Illia tried to reason, " I had to do _something._" But Effie refused to be placated. "Well the next time you want to go play Super Hero with the Illuminati, do me a favor and _DON'T_!" Then in a less angry but still desparate tone, "Illia, I thought I was going to have to watch you get shot or crushed to death or something. Don't you realize that if something happens to you, I'll be all alone again? Just like before, when I was being..."

She went silent and sank to the ground, hugging her knees to her chest as she began to sob. The memories of her early childhood, of her being sick, alone, and largely unwanted by anybody came back to her in a rush. Following that came her painful first experiences within the Illuminati, and finally, the horros of the G-Project with its cruel, almost inhumane scientists, the nightmarish experiments and treatments she'd been forced to undergo daily...

"Effie, I said I'm sorry," She heard Illia's voice as if it were coming from somewhere distant, nothing more than a dreamy echo at first. Then it became clearer and only then did she register him crouching in front of her, his hand gently caressing her forehead. "No Illia, it's O.K. You did what you felt you had to, to protect us, to protect me and I am thankful for that," Effie sniffled, " I just don't want to lose you, to be by myself anymore. The thought of it always brings back those terrible memories. It is too scary for me."

The tension having dissolved for now, Illia went back to his original thoughts before the tirade, concerning Effie's sudden change in appearance. _Her eyes_, he remembered. "Effie look at me." When she did, he nothing of what he had detected in them, save for their being slightly puffy from Effie's crying. Yet Illia knew he had seen something and that he would have to keep his own eyes on her condition; there was no telling what those Illuminati crackpots had done to her or inserted into her system. For now though, his comfort was what she needed most and the both of them needed to put some distance between themselves and the crash site. Gill's forces weren't just going to let them off the hook because of the loss of one unit; more likely they'd be tracking them with a serious vengeance one they found out. Putting an arm around Effie, he coaxed her to her feet and suggested they keep moving.


End file.
